The flurry of concern about PICS "vs." free speech indicates among other
things how some well-intentioned civil libertarians misunderstand the
*possible* outcomes of this technology. Whatever method is used to
rate, block, dictate or otherwise "censor" content will have a
workaround and there will be no shortage of browsers and other software
with "skeleton keys" so that the so-called protectors will be able to
find out what to censor. They can no more keep such tools as privileges
of power than they can keep the other communications channels as their
own. Wirelessness precludes exclusivity. Just as we all breathe the
same air and drink the same water, so all our corpuscles are permeated
by the same "ether." The fear of this particular "big brother" is
paranoid - there's no more "THEY" out there, we are now entirely stuck
with "WE" for better or worse and just as I always could look at "dirty
pictures" as an adolescent and even <gasp> read Thomas Paine or whoever
else the library watchdogs proscribed, so I will be able to post an
inaccessible web site. I may get punished if I get caught but as my
signature says:
Love.
ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE
http://dicomp.pair.com
So - NOT TO WORRY. We are all in this together; we are all members of
one another.